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Too much money? No such thing.

Click here to listen to the broadcast of You Tell Me on KTBB AM & FM, Friday, May 7, 2010. Click here to watch the video of the broadcast.

Whenever President Obama goes off prompter he reveals himself. Such was the case on April 28 at a speech in Illinois at which he was promoting his financial reform package.

(verbatim excerpt: “Were not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that’s fairly earned. I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money…”)

In the video, you see the president realize what he said and stammer a bit trying to get back on message (read: on the prompter).

But you have to think that even if he wishes he hadn’t said it, he still believes it. If he doesn’t, then where did it come from?

If he truly believes that there comes a point when you’ve made enough money, how much money is that? Is it $5.5 million? That’s what the president and first lady showed on their tax return for 2009. The president made $400,000 for being president and another $5.1 million or so on the royalties from his unreadable books.

Is $5.5 million, then, the magic number? Is $5.6 million too much?

If that’s the case, what does he say to all of his rich liberal supporters? Oprah Winfrey just inked a deal worth more than $100 million for a prime time television show. Jennifer Aniston is a big Obama supporter. She reportedly got $25 million for that stinkeroo of a movie The Bounty Hunter. Is that too much? Should she feel guilty? (In the case of this particular movie, absolutely.)

Steve Jobs is a wealthy liberal. He reportedly made $48 million last year. Surely that’s enough.

And assuming that we can all agree on just how much money is actually enough, what becomes of the excess? Once you’ve crossed some pre-determined enough-is-enough threshold, do you stop doing whatever it is that pays you so well? Or do you consign all that you make in excess of that amount to the government in the form of taxes?

One suspects, in the case of Obama, the latter. And if that’s true, when are Oprah and Jen and Steve going to pay up?

What the president and all who think like him don’t understand is that there are only two ways to accumulate money. One way is to engage in illegal activities such as drug dealing. If you make money in this manner, you belong in the penitentiary.

The other way is to produce something or provide a service upon which your fellow citizens place a great value. When you do that, you make life better for everybody and absolutely everything depends on you continuing to do so.

Say what you will about Jennifer Aniston, according to Forbes magazine, her preceding three movies produced $17 in revenue for every one dollar she earned. That extra $16 is feeding a lot of families.

Everything that Steve Jobs touches turns to gold. His 34,000 employees and his shareholders have every reason to be grateful. Apple, Inc. is making more than 10,000 iPads per day and still not meeting the demand. For being Apple’s CEO, Jobs made one dollar last year. But he made $48 million from dividends on the Disney stock he received from selling Pixar Animation in 2006. How many earn their livelihoods directly or indirectly from Apple and Pixar? Should we make Jobs hand over the $48 million or should we let him hang on to it in case he has another good idea?

Mr. President, the truth is Americans have been pretty good at deciding for themselves when they’ve made enough money. Monroe Dunaway Anderson established a foundation that left $19 million in 1939 (the equivalent of almost $300 million today) to establish the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Cancer victims that would have long ago died are alive today as a result. Do we imagine the federal government doing as much good with the $300 million as M.D. Anderson did?

Andrew Carnegie decided for himself that he had made enough money. As a result, we now have, among other things, Carnegie Hall, the Carnegie-Mellon University and hundreds of Carnegie Libraries all over the country, (including the library here in Tyler), all as a result of Carnegie donating wealth born of his productive enterprise.

Put this on the prompter and read it, Mr. President. So long as you are meeting the needs of your fellow citizens and offering something of value in return for what you are paid, you can never make too much money.

The prospect of enormous reward for value given is the reason America became the greatest nation in history.

I spoke to you on the phone the other morning. I was the one that called in and complained about the ad that was being run by the government on a new program called “Snap” or something like that? I should have started our conversation by thanking you for the radio station and the programming you offer. It is a wonderful service to the area. It really keeps people informed because the media isn’t doing it. I have to tell you that two things greatly worried me. The first, was when I asked you why you had such a liberal news cast. You told me that “ABC isn’t liberal”. Now either you never listen to your programming and your “You Tell Me” spots are written and recorded by somebody else that is using your name or you don’t know what a liberal newscast is. Maybe you just wanted to get me off the phone which I have to conclude based on what I hear on the radio. The second thing that worries me and this much more so is the fact that either you don’t know what public virtue is or worse, you do, and you’re not willing to have any. Public virtue is where you sacrifice for the good of the public. During the Revolutionary War, many merchants lit their stores on fire rather than have the British (the enemy) have access to their goods. They burnt up their entire life savings and way of life for the greater cause. I know you are in the radio business to make money. You should be paid well for the service you provide. But by allowing the federal government to advertise on your station you are putting your own personal needs ahead of the country. The government has no right to be in the welfare business. It is completely 100% unconstitutional. The commerce clause does not apply. They aren’t regulating “SNAP” between states. Please don’t get offended. Please consider what I am saying and please put your country first. Please only endorse those things that are based on natural law not civil or bureaucratic law. Thanks for your time.

Mr. Gleiser, I agree with you 1,000%!! How dare Mr. Obama say other people are making too much money while he and his wife raked in $5.5 million His elitisist hyprocrisy reeks of his socialist/Marxist intentions to spread EVERYONE ELSE’S wealth around. God help America!

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Author’s Note

When I was a young man trying to break in to the radio business, one of the biggest radio stations in the country was Dallas's KLIF 1190 AM.

The station was owned by broadcasting pioneer Gordon McLendon. McLendon was known for his sharply-written editorials. Those editorials were, however, a one-way street. There was no practical way for the listener to respond.

But that is no longer the case. With the the advent of the Internet, lectures have turned into dialogues.
That's my hope for this website. I say what's on my mind. You respond by saying what's on yours.